Body Of Woman With Estate Worth Over $400,000 Left Unclaimed For Over 2 Months

(CBS) — A Stickney woman who died this spring left an estate worth more than $400,000 but her body was unclaimed at the county morgue for at least 60 days while her beneficiaries were deciding who would pay for burial, reports WBBM’s Steve Miller.

The body of 94-year-old Virginia Komar was found in her home on Wesley Avenue in Stickney.

That was May 12.

Body of Woman With Estate Worth Over $400,000 Left Unclaimed For Over 2 Months

She had three beneficiaries – and $354,000 in a bank account and $60,000 in bonds.

And the public administrator’s office says her body remained unburied for more than two months because there was a “lack of willingness” by the beneficiaries to pay for burial.

“I think there’s a moral responsibility there.”

But there is no legal responsibility, says Nicholas Grapsas, the Cook County public administrator.

One staff member said, “It was very frustrating to all of us.”

But in the end, she said, the beneficiaries did the right thing and paid for Virginia Komar’s burial.

Steve Miller is an investigative reporter and has been with Newsradio for more than two decades. He grew up in South Texas and received his undergraduate degree in Liberal Arts at the University of Texas in Austin. After graduation, he moved to...